


The Walls Kept Tumbling Down

by TheSevenUmbrellas (RosyPages)



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate timeline klaus, Doctor Klaus, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Klaus/Dave but not enough to tag, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, One Shot, Post-Season/Series 02, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Season/Series 02 Spoilers, Sibling Bonding, Takes place after season 2, mention of drug use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:55:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26131489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosyPages/pseuds/TheSevenUmbrellas
Summary: Five sends Allison and Diego to find Klaus' alternate self.They find him thriving as a doctor who is happily married.Klaus has mixed feelings about this.
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 29
Kudos: 274





	The Walls Kept Tumbling Down

**Author's Note:**

> Warning, this is one of my worse fics I've written. I kept rewriting it and then I kind of got over it. This has barely been edited and it's not great so I warned ya!

Of course their search for Klaus would take them to a hospital. Diego was not surprised.

Five had sent them all to look for their alternate selves, in the hopes that it would help with fixing the timeline. The way he’d worded it was _twelve people with superpowers was better than six_.

Diego didn’t know how he felt about their brother gathering an army for himself, but his curiosity had outweighed his misgivings.

“It’s just reconnaissance. Just to see if they’ll be useful,” he’d told them, handing Diego a slip of paper with a name and address, before jumping away.

Diego hated when he did that. He and Allison had been assigned to find Klaus. Or whoever Klaus was in this timeline. Although in Diego’s opinion he probably wasn’t much different. Klaus would be Klaus, whether that would be in the 2010s, 1960s, or an alternate timeline.

He wondered what _his_ alternate self would be like. Five had banned them all from interacting with… _themselves_ … because of “homicidal rage.” He wasn’t sure what that meant, but Luther seemed to be in agreement. If Five and Luther both agreed on something, usually that meant they rest of them had better listen.

“Do we even bother checking?” Diego asked. “He’s probably OD’d in there.”

Allison rolled her eyes, but continued walking towards the hospital.

“I’m serious,” he called. “I can barely manage one Klaus. Listen, I love the guy… but imagine _two of them_.” The horror was unimaginable.

Allison scoffed. “C’mon Diego, we’re checking.”

He hurried after her, because usually when she used that tone of voice, a rumor was soon to follow.

Inside the lobby, Allison was already talking to a tired looking guy at the front desk. “Hi,” she said, in that fake sweet voice she did when she wanted something. Already the guy was blinking up at her, looking much more interested in her than he did at the clipboard in his hands. “We’re looking for Klaus Wagner? Is there someone we can ask-”

“Dr. Wagner? He’s in surgery right now.”

Diego almost laughed. “Doctor?” he repeated as he joined them at the front desk. “Did you say doctor?”

The guy blinked at him. His name tag read “Jason.” “Yes?” he asked, clearly wondering what the hell these two strangers were doing in a hospital looking for doctors they didn’t know were doctors.

Because Klaus was a _doctor_.

No, that couldn’t be right.

“Hey Allison,” he said, nudging her. “Let me see that paper again.”

She was staring at Five’s paper herself. Sure enough it said _St. Rose’s Hospital, Klaus Wagner **.**_ The name Wagner was underlined, as if Five had thought they were too stupid to remember the name change. _Yes, we’re aware we’re in another timeline, thank you Five._

Jason was still staring at them. “If you’re not here for a patient, then I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Diego looked at Allison. “You want to take this?”

She sighed. “Fine.” Then, turning to the guy she said, “I heard a rumor you told us where to find Klaus Wagner.”

Jason sent them to Room 304, which turned out to be a big open space with a variety of cluttered desks inside. Only one woman was inside, scribbling on a clipboard. She didn’t even look up when she spoke to them. “Only employees are allowed to be in here.”

“We’re looking for Klaus?” Allison asked, still using her kind celebrity voice.

“He’s in surgery.”

“Do you know when he’ll be back?”

She snorted. “Do I look like I have time to keep track of that man?” She punctuated each word with a jab of her pen onto paper.

Diego took a step into the room. “We’ll just wait here for him, then.”

The lady- she must’ve been another doctor, looked up at that. She seemed about to argue, but then rolled her eyes. “Sure. I don’t have time for this anyway. His desk is the second to last one on the left. Don’t touch anything, don’t look at anything, and if anyone asks, I never saw you.”

With that she snapped up her paperwork and pushed her way out of the room.

“I liked her,” Diego decided as soon as the door snapped closed.

Allison walked over to the desk, trailing her fingers along the ends. “Wow. I can’t believe Klaus has a _desk_.”

He snorted. “I know right.”

She stopped and picked up a small frame half hidden by the computer. “Hey, look at this.”

He peered over her shoulder. The picture was of someone who resembled their brother. His hair was neater and pulled back into a tight bun. His facial expression wasn’t something he’d ever seen on Klaus. A strong smile and bright eyes. There was something honest about it. A snapshot of pure joy.

Another man was in the picture with him. He had his arms around their not-brother and he too was beaming. His hair was shaved on the side, with the middle left to grow long and curly. Instead of the camera, he was staring at Klaus, so that they could only see the impression of a strong jawline and one blue eyes.

On both their hands were matching gold rings. 

“No way…” Diego almost couldn’t believe it. “Is that their wedding photo?”

Klaus _married_? Look, he would’ve been the first in line to tell anyone who’d listen that Klaus deserved the world. Not that he’d say that to his brother’s face. But he’d never exactly been a settling down type. For as long as he’d known him, Diego couldn’t remember a time Klaus had held a relationship for longer than three weeks.

They were interrupted by the sound of a door opening.

“Kate, if Alex complains to me about cardiac stabilizers one more time- Oh… Can I help you?”

Diego and Allison spun around. In front of them was someone who resembled Klaus. There weren’t many physical differences…. His hair was cut to his shoulders, his height and weight about the same. He was missing eyeliner, but his fingernails were painted with light blue nail polish, so he wasn’t totally unrecognizable.

Still, he carried himself differently, with a confidence that Klaus had never possessed. He didn’t slightly bow his head as he talked, didn’t balance on his toes as if he were about to bolt at a loud noise. His voice was calm and solid, with a slight touch of a German accent, and his smile was easy and unafraid. It was the eyes that stood out the most to Diego though. They remained steadfast on the two of them. His gaze never wandered, never flickered into dark corners, didn’t seem to be seeing anything except the two strangers in his office.

Allison spoke first. “Klaus?” she half whispered, looking just as stunned as Diego felt.

This new Klaus arched his eyebrow at her, uncertain. “I usually go by Dr. Wagner. Listen, I don’t want to be rude but…”

Diego rubbed at the back of his head. He couldn’t believe it. Time travel? Sure. An agency called the Commission who monitored time? Sure. But _this?_ “You’re _actually_ a doctor,” he breathed, unable to believe he was saying those words in that order. Usually it was _Klaus, you need a doctor_ or _Klaus don’t steal from that doctor_ or that one time, _Klaus stop dating that doctor, he’s an asshole_.

Klaus gestured to the stethoscope around his next. “Fresh out of surgery. And I have some paperwork I really need to fill out, so…”

Diego just shook his head in amazement. “And you’re not on drugs?”

That made him furrow his eyebrow. “Is that some weird stereotype about German doctors I don’t know about?”

Allison hit him on the shoulder. “No! He’s just… making a joke. A bad joke. Listen, can we talk to you?”

Klaus (the _doctor_ ) shrugged his shoulders. “Are you… you’re not related to a patient, are you? I’m really sorry, I just don’t recognize you.”

Diego stared at Allison. He didn’t know where she was going. They hadn’t talked about a cover story. At all. He’d just assumed they’d find “other” Klaus hanging out of a window trying to escape the hospital room after an OD. He hadn’t expected to find someone who could actually _help_ them. Or, at least someone who Five would find interesting. Having a doctor on their team could actually help though. Especially now that Mom was gone…

Luckily, Allison was quicker than him. “No. We came to see you because…” She trailed off. Okay, maybe she wasn’t. She stared at Diego.

He shrugged.

She turned back to Klaus. “We share a birthday.”

His face scrunched up in confusion. “Oh…” Then he seemed to think about it for a second. His eyes lit up. “Oh! You! You’re like me? I mean, you are, right? That’s what you meant? That would be weird if that wasn’t what you meant.

Diego forced a smile. Okay, telling him the truth it was. Or at least half the truth. “Yeah, the whole random pregnancy thing?”

“Yes! Okay, wow… okay… this… I wasn’t expecting this. Obviously. I mean, I’ve never met anyone like me before. I knew there were others, from the news stories and stuff. But I never thought to find… Wow. Okay. Cool. Do you two want to have a seat? I have a little time.”

Diego had never thought to consider what Klaus would’ve been like without the drugs. But this was… different. He was all the energy without the mania, all the excitement, without the edge of fever. He was just so…. _Different_.

They both took a seat at his desk and Klaus pulled up his own seat from one of the spare chairs. It seemed the room was less of an official office space and more of a dumping ground for office-type furniture, pens, and paperwork.

“So you… can you…” Diego caught himself before he could say outright _you still talk to ghosts, right?_ Because if he didn’t… he couldn’t. Surely, this Klaus must have other powers because what else could explain it. “I mean… you see things, right?”

Whatever he’d expected, it wasn’t Klaus saying, “You guys have schizophrenia too, huh?”

“What?” both Allison and Diego said at the same time.

His face crumped. “Oh, sorry… I… The way you phrased it. Sorry…”

Allison leaned forward. “You have schizophrenia?”

“Yeah, I do. Medicated now though. I have it under control. I mean, I have my good days and bad days obviously, but nowhere close to the bad days I used to have. Without my parents helping me, I don’t know if I would’ve made it through medical school. But-” He seemed to catch himself and shot them a nervous smile. “That isn’t what you need to hear, though. What did you mean then if you didn’t mean schizophrenia?”

Diego and Allison shared looks again. _Klaus didn’t know he had powers_.

Did they tell him?

No… they didn’t need to freak him out more than he already was.

Diego shook his head gently, so that only Allison would notice.

She smiled back at Klaus. “Oh… just someone else we met. Another one of us. But, we shouldn’t talk about him… it’s personal.”

Klaus’ face lit up like a Christmas tree. “You know others?”

Diego nodded. “Yeah…we errr… found a few others. Just a handful. Me and Allison… it’s a personal project, you know? We just like getting to know everyone. It’s been fun…” God did he sound lame. He sounded like Luther when he’d started scrapbooking about space, or whatever the hell that project had been. If he was being honest, he hadn’t really been paying attention. They’d been fourteen and Luther had been a _real nerd_. He still was.

“That’s amazing,” Klaus said. “What are they like?”

“Oh.. umm…” Diego somehow stopped himself from saying _batshit crazy and very annoying_. _And that’s just Five_. “Cool?” Okay, that didn’t sound convincing.

Allison saved him. “We wanted to know more about you, actually.”

An hour later, after exchanging contact details and avoiding a few more of Klaus’ more specific questions, Diego and Allison found themselves explaining the bizarre experience to their siblings.

“It was like you were a whole other person, Klaus,” Diego said. Their brother (the original Klaus, he supposed… was that a weird way of thinking about it?) was sat with his lets up on the couch and an unlit cigarette between his lips. Every now and then his eyes skirted to the left or right, catching movement the rest of them couldn’t see. Even more than before, Diego could see the ways he ticked. The way he drummed his fingers against his knee, the way he’d flinch out of nowhere, as if startled by a loud noise. Despite his sobriety, he still wasn’t at all like that man he and Allison had met.

Luther snorted from his chair. “A doctor? Yeah, right?”

Klaus nodded. “I’m inclined to agree. We’re not that gullible, right Luther?”

Luther nodded enthusiastically, looking overjoyed to be included in the _not gullible_ range.

Allison shook his head. “No, we’re serious. You were married, you were talking about surgery. I mean… you were really... different. You told us everything… I mean, he told us everything. He was born in German and adopted before moving to the US at 14. He went to medical school and everything.”

Klaus just rolled his eyes. “Sure, he did. I bet he’d just like a foot doctor or something. Those people are real scam artists, you know. I knew this guy-”

“No,” Diego jumped in. He wasn’t sure why he felt such a strong need to defend this new Klaus, but he did. “He said he specialized in trauma. He told us some really cool stories, actually. He worked on this one guy who-”

“Diego, let’s not,” Allison said, who’d suddenly turned very green.

“Sorry.”

Vanya, Five, and Luther were staring wide eyed. Luther and Vanya looked shocked. Five was beaming.

“This is perfect,” he said. “Do you think you could convince him to help us if something went wrong. At least one of you sounds smart enough to help us.”

Diego tried not to take offense to that. They hadn’t even found his alternate self yet, but he was sure his other self would be helpful to them. He was _pretty_ sure…

Klaus was staring at the floor. “That guy just sounds boring to me. I mean, what’s the point of seeing ghosts if he’s gonna go saving them all anyway?”

“That’s the thing!” Diego said, “He doesn’t see ghosts. He said something about schizophrenia. We couldn’t ask too much obviously, because he would’ve thought we were crazy, but he seems to be taking something for it and that helps, I guess. He said he had some trouble sometimes, but to me he looked…” Diego didn’t know how to finish the sentence without offending Klaus. His brother was staring at the ceiling, looking like he wasn’t paying much attention, but Diego could see the tension in his shoulders. This was annoying him.

Five didn’t seem to care about the specifics anyway. “You think you two can go back and talk to him?”

Allison nodded. “Yeah, he already invited us to dinner with him and his husband. We said we’d bring a few of you. He just thinks we’re finding people like us for fun, like a family reunion. He doesn’t know about our powers or anything.”

Five continued to talk, making plans and orders. But Diego’s eyes were on Klaus.

He’d pushed himself off the couch, oddly silent, and walked out the door without another word. Ignoring Five, Diego followed him.

Diego found him leaning against the wall outside on the street. In his hands was a smoking cigarette. “Hey,” he called as soon as the door was closed. “What’s wrong with you?” It came out more confrontational than he’d meant it to.

“Why don’t you ask Dr. Wagner,” Klaus asked, bitterly. He was glaring at his cigarette, letting the fire eat away without taking a drag.

Diego scoffed. “Don’t be like that, Bro. You know that’s not what we meant.” He wasn’t even sure _what_ Klaus had thought they’d meant. Was he really jealous of _himself_? “You’re being stupid.”

“Yep, that’s me. Stupid Klaus.”

“And dramatic.”

Klaus just grunted. He was still playing with the cigarette, twisting it around in his fingers.

Diego sighed. “Klaus, I don’t have time for this.”

“Sorry for wasting your time.”

“You’re not- what is your problem!”

“You!” He threw the cigarette at Diego’s feet, as hard as he could. “Going on about how great of a person I _could’ve_ been. Like I chose this or something.”

“Didn’t you?” It was out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

Klaus froze, glaring at Diego with more anger than he’d ever seen in him. “Fuck you, Diego.”

“I don’t understand why you’re so angry! Who cares what your other self is like? Why does it matter?”

Klaus exploded, throwing his arms up, voice cracking. “Because that could’ve been me!”

The words hung in the air. Diego didn’t have an answer for him, out of anger or kindness. Tears were streaming from his brother’s face. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Klaus cry. Not since the apocalypse, since Reginald’s funeral, maybe even since they’d been little kids. Klaus had numbed himself to the world for a long time.

Klaus seemed to recover. Diego watched him retreat back into himself slowly, physically pulling away. His hands fumbled as he pulled out another cigarette. The lighter shook in his hands until he gave up and pocketed it.

When he spoke next, his voice was so soft Diego could barely hear it. He didn’t look up, just stared straight ahead, eyes far away. “I could’ve had that, you know? A life. Goals. A family.”

“You have a family,” Diego said, automatically.

Klaus snorted lightly. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

He did know. And he understood. He moved closer to Klaus, until they were both leaning against the wall, shoulders brushing. Klaus didn’t like physical contact during serious conversations. Hell, Klaus didn’t like serious conversations.

“Klaus…” Diego couldn’t make the words come out of his mouth. He wanted to say he knew what that was like. After all, what did he have? He’d lost Eudora, lost Lila, and his life goal was to fight crime at night in leather. But then again… whose fault was that? He’d had a chance at the police academy, he’d messed up with Eudora himself. He didn’t think Klaus had ever had that chance.

 _No_ , Klaus had chosen the drugs over and over… He’d made his choice.

But then he thought back to the other Klaus. The clear-headed Klaus who’d managed to stay focused for longer than any conversation he’d ever had with this Klaus. The one who’d been adopted into a loving family and not locked in a mausoleum and who probably slept without nightmares.

Yeah, Diego knew about those. He’d heard Klaus screaming at night.

Even as they talked, Klaus’ eyes were skittering off into the dark corners.

These were things he’d never noticed before. It’d only been after the apocalypse, after they were forced to live together and spend time together that he truly noticed the parts of himself that his brother fought so hard to keep hidden.

“Klaus,” he tried again. But there were no words.

Klaus crushed the cigarette between his fingers. “I always wondered what would’ve happened to me without Dad… I figured I would’ve always done the drugs. They keep the ghosts away, right? But now I know, I could’ve done something. I could’ve been someone. I could’ve had a _life_.”

“You can still have that.”

He snorted. “Yeah, because I’ve done so well with it so far. Stupid druggie,” he said, spitting the words.

Diego flinched. He’d never heard Klaus talk about himself like that. He’d always assumed he was the only one of the siblings who actually _liked_ themselves. Who he was had never bothered Klaus before. At least, Diego had assumed that’d been the case.

Maybe he’d been wrong. Maybe was just a bad brother who didn’t know jack shit about his siblings.

Diego turned and held his shoulders tight. “You could still have that, Bro. I promise. When this is done. I’ll help you.”

“Thanks Diego…”

Diego released his shoulders, but before he could pull away, Klaus caught him and pulled him into a tight hug. “I mean it. Thanks.”

“Of course.”

“Hey, was my husband hot?”

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said, not one of my better fics. 
> 
> Just had this small idea and wanted to write it up.


End file.
